FIRST IN SCORE – BENNET’S WORST ENEMY: The NRSC is turning its firepower on Colorado today, targeting Sen. Michael Bennet with its second independent expenditure ad of the cycle and the first aimed at an incumbent Democrat. The spot is a compact, forceful attack, hitting the senator’s economic record and repeatedly showing a clip of Bennet touting his unapologetic support for the Recovery Act. “He voted for the stimulus bill, promising us jobs,” the narrator says, teeing up the footage of Bennet saying: “I voted for it, and I’m glad I did.” The commercial continues: “But unemployment’s up. He even voted for job-killing taxes. … Michael Bennet. More spending. Higher taxes. Jobs lost.” Cue Michael Bennet: “I voted for it, and I’m glad I did.”

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Bennet is in a difficult fight for reelection against Republican Weld County District Attorney Ken Buck, who’s proven a tougher opponent than some Democrats had hoped. Both Bennet and the DSCC have already run ads against Buck, but recent polls have shown a close race with the senator stuck in the low-to-middle 40 percent range. NRSC spokeswoman Amber Marchand summed up the Republican case against Bennet in a statement: “Coloradans know their appointed Senator has been a reliable rubberstamp for President Obama’s reckless spending agenda in Washington.” Watch the ad here. http://bit.ly/alJd7V

DELAWARE DISPATCH – THE BIDEN SEAT – Democratic Senate candidate Chris Coons spoke Tuesday night with Vice President Joe Biden, a Coons campaign spokesman confirmed, as the New Castle County executive claimed his party’s nomination for Biden’s old Senate seat. The vice president called Coons and delivered this advice: Run hard these last two months. Biden is expected to campaign for Coons before November. http://usat.ly/bohEM3

AYOTTE VS. HODES – IT’S ON: Former New Hampshire Attorney General Kelly Ayotte claimed victory in the Republican Senate primary Wednesday, defeating Union Leader-endorsed opponent Ovide Lamontagne by less than 2,000 votes. Lamontagne declined to pursue a recount. A longtime New Hampshire operative sympathetic to Ayotte gave Score this postgame analysis: “There was a time when the Union Leader played kingmaker here. But in this race, Sarah Palin was the queenmaker.” Ayotte advances to a general election fight with Rep. Paul Hodes, whom she led by four points in a PPP survey taken over the weekend. http://bit.ly/aJMYIV and http://bit.ly/b7J8Jt

N.H. EXCLUSIVE – KUSTER’S STAND: New Hampshire congressional candidate Ann McLane Kuster, the Democratic nominee for outgoing Rep. Paul Hodes’s seat, is starting her general election campaign against former GOP Rep. Charlie Bass with a pointed contrast ad. The spot opens with a shot of the Capitol and laces into Bass for his time in Congress: “Bass voted to add trillions to the debt while voting to raise his own pay eight times. Why would we ever send Charlie Bass back to Congress?” The alternative? “Annie Kuster: With a plan to end tax breaks for corporations that ship jobs overseas and freeze congressional pay until the budget is balanced.” Watch the ad here. http://bit.ly/cxGZRh

2012 SNEAK PEEK – HUCKA-TEA – Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee will travel to Kentucky this month to campaign for two of the 2010 cycle’s original tea party insurgents: Republican Senate nominee Rand Paul and House candidate Todd Lally. He’ll formally endorse both of them and hold separate events to boost their campaigns, likely on Sept. 25. It’s almost a distant memory in a post-9/14 world, but it was in Kentucky back on May 18 that the tea party revolt first exploded this year. More on that theme here. http://politi.co/cbyAHv

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WHAT ROVE WAS TALKING ABOUT: National media scrutiny of Christine O’Donnell has officially begun, highlighting the extensive personal financial problems that turned even many conservative Republicans away from her candidacy. ABC News: “In March, the IRS initiated an audit and placed a lien against her for $11,744.59 in taxes and penalties from the 2005 tax year. … Farleigh Dickinson University, in New Jersey, has sued O'Donnell five times for outstanding debts of about $5,000.” And from NPR: “[S]he was fired from a respected Republican think tank, which she then sued for discrimination. In 2008, her house fell into foreclosure and was scheduled for auction, until a friend and campaign worker bought it.” http://bit.ly/drWzIy and http://n.pr/bTIdPG

BUT STILL – MAKING UP IS HARD TO DO: National Republicans have made at least a few gestures toward mending fences with O’Donnell after the bloody primary, and NRSC Chairman John Cornyn announced that the committee had cut her campaign a $42,000 check. Mitt Romney endorsed O’Donnell and sent $5,000 for her bid, declaring: “I believe it is important we support her so we can win back the U.S. Senate this fall.”

HOUSE RACE EXCLUSIVE I – AX TO GRIND – Wisconsin Republican Sean Duffy is up with his first ad of the general election campaign: A positive spot that shows the plaid-and-denim-clad former district attorney swinging an ax against a piece of timber. “I come from a long line of lumberjacks,” Duffy says. “I’ve always been quick to take on a big piece of timber and I’m just as ready to topple the big spending in Washington.” His closing pitch: “I’ll work in Congress to cut spending and balance the budget. … I’ll bring the ax to Washington.” Duffy has come under attack from the DCCC this week in the committee’s second independent expenditure ad in the district, focused on Duffy’s days as a “Real World” contestant. His ad emphasizes his roots in Wisconsin instead of what the DCCC calls a “Hollywood lifestyle.” Watch Duffy’s ad here: http://bit.ly/9IU4x2 And the Democratic spot: http://bit.ly/dubIlO

HOUSE RACE EXCLUSIVE II – MOORE VS. ‘MORE OF THE SAME’: Kansas Democrat Stephene Moore is airing the first television commercial of her campaign to succeed her husband, retiring Rep. Dennis Moore, in Kansas’s 3rd District House seat. Appearing on screen in hospital attire, Moore introduces herself as a nurse – and casts her Republican opponent, state Rep. Kevin Yoder, as an out of touch politician. “As a labor and delivery nurse, I get to see the face of our future. So I’ll make education a top priority, to build our economy,” Moore says. “But not my opponent. He’s pushed to cut 172 million from Kansas schools, AND supports incentives for businesses to move jobs overseas. That’s a mess we don’t need in Congress.” Her closing argument: “Send him and you get more of the same. Send me and I’ll deliver.” Watch the ad here. http://bit.ly/bc88ci

TODAY – From the White House guidance: “[T]he President will travel to Connecticut to attend events for Connecticut Attorney General Blumenthal and the DNC.”

AND – ANTE FOR ANGLE: Senate Republicans, including John Cornyn, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Whip Jon Kyl are hosting a fundraiser today for Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle. The event is scheduled to take place at NRSC headquarters, according to an invitation obtained by Morning Score, with a requested donation of $1,000 for PACs and $500 for individuals.

SHE’S NO. 1: Former eBay CEO Meg Whitman has put $119 million of her fortune into her campaign for governor of California, spending more on a single election than any other self-funding candidate in history. The Los Angeles Times: “Whitman's latest cash infusion comes just one month after writing a $13-million check to her campaign last month. Whitman has now surpassed New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg as the most prolific spender on any one campaign. Bloomberg spent $109 million on his 2009 reelection as mayor of New York.” http://lat.ms/bDfjMk

ACROSS THE GULF: Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal is making a trip to Florida Friday for Republican gubernatorial candidate Rick Scott, campaigning with the GOP nominee in Pensacola, Orlando and Jacksonville. Jindal’s the first national Republican to come in for Scott since late August, when Haley Barbour and Jeb Bush joined him for post-primary unity events.

POLL OF THE DAY – HIS TO LOSE: Republican Marco Rubio is pulling away from independent Gov. Charlie Crist and Democratic Rep. Kendrick Meek in the Florida Senate race, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll shows. Rubio is taking 40 percent of the vote to Crist’s 26 percent and Meek’s 21 percent, suggesting he’s consolidated a strong conservative bloc as Meek and Crist battle over the center-left. The same poll showed a close race for governor, with Republican Rick Scott leading Democrat Alex Sink by two points, 47 percent to 45 percent. http://bit.ly/bQBm7Y

CAMPAIGN CLICK: The Indiana Republican Party will be promoting a new website today, targeting Democratic Rep. Baron Hill with a page that looks an awful lot like the congressman’s website – with a negative twist. Where Hill’s site is branded: “Tough. Independent. Fights for Southern Indiana,” the GOP version has the header: “Out of touch. Liberal. Fights for his party leaders.” See the sites here http://bit.ly/btU0sr and here http://bit.ly/b9IOPs

MAN WITHOUT A TEA PARTY? Defeated New York House candidate Doug Hoffman may not be able to rely on heavy-duty activist support if he keeps running in the 23rd District on the Conservative Party line. Mark Barie, a regional tea party honcho, quickly unloaded on Hoffman’s camp for fumbling the GOP primary against nominee Matt Doheny: “I was extremely disappointed with the results, but I think Doug Hoffman's defeat was a direct result of a campaign that was totally mismanaged.” http://bit.ly/cFpv6O

NOT A GOOD HEADLINE – “Georgia Governor's Candidate Admit He Owes $2 Million” – And the excuse is kinda worse: “Nathan Deal acknowledges that he has financial problems from an investment in his daughter’s failed sporting goods store. … He says he is facing the same economic trouble that many Georgians are.” http://bit.ly/dzeJws

AD WATCH – THE FULL TANCREDO: Former Rep. Tom Tancredo seems to have concluded that the road to the Colorado governor’s mansion runs through the wreckage of Republican Dan Maes’s campaign, and has launched a brutally negative ad featuring an elderly woman accusing Maes of lying “about his conservative principles.” “Dan Maes not only conned me out of my money, he lied to me about his background,” the woman says. “I’ve had so many people call me and ask: What kind of a man would do that to an 83-year-old lady? And I don’t want that to happen to the voters of this state.” http://bit.ly/ca4Y9f

COMINGS AND GOINGS: Dan Conston, formerly the spokesman for Kansas Rep. Jerry Moran’s successful Senate primary campaign, is the new communications director for the Republican Party of Florida, adding an extra gun to the RPOF’s arsenal for the end of the 2010 campaign. He replaces Katie Betta, an RPOF veteran who’s moving full-time to state House Speaker-to-be Dean Cannon’s office.

CHICAGO SCOOP – WHEN RAHM MET JESSE – From the Tribune’s Peter Nicholas and Christi Parsons: “White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel was planning to meet privately with Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. on Wednesday night to discuss the Chicago mayor's race, according to two people familiar with the plans. The meeting follows Emanuel's decision to commission a Chicago poll testing his viability as a mayoral candidate.” http://bit.ly/cYw4rX

AND – THE COMEBACK CAROL? Former Sen. Carol Moseley Braun is jumping into the race for mayor, Chicago Public Radio reports, recalling: “Moseley Braun lost a bid for the 2004 Democratic nomination for president, and started an organic foods company in Chicago.” http://bit.ly/coTT8b

CODA – QUOTE OF THE DAY: “An immense opportunity to present his case without presenting a number of comments and, I think, undignified conduct that he has exhibited in the past.” – New York Gov. and dignity expert David Paterson’s description of Republican Carl Paladino’s gubernatorial campaign. http://bit.ly/dmobxj

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Authors:

About The Author

Alexander Burns is a senior political reporter for POLITICO. During the 2012 campaign, he co-authored POLITICO’s Burns and Haberman blog, which was widely recognized as one of the authoritative resources on the presidential election. Prior to that, Burns created the daily Morning Score political tip sheet and edited the POLITICO44 page. A graduate of Harvard College, where he edited the Harvard Political Review, Burns has appeared on television and radio as a political analyst and has been a guest speaker at New York University, the University of Kansas’s Dole Institute and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Politics, among other schools.